IOR/L/PS/12/2065

This volume mostly contains copies of Foreign Office correspondence (forwarded by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India) relating to the strained relations between Ibn Sa'ud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and the Imam of Yemen [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn] and their respective claims to Najran. The volume concludes with reports on the outbreak of war between the two states and the war's early stages.

The correspondence discusses the following:

• An offer, made to Ibn Sa'ud by King Faisal [Fayṣal bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī] of Iraq, to act as a mediator between Ibn Sa'ud and the Imam of Yemen.
• The Italian Government's refusal to recognise Ibn Sa'ud's annexation of Asir.
• An alleged oral agreement regarding the frontiers between Saudi Arabia (then the Kingdom of the Hejaz and Nejd) and Yemen, which is believed to have been concluded between Ibn Sa'ud and the Imam of Yemen in 1927.
• Reports of the occupation of Badr, Najran, by Yemeni troops.
• Reports of Saudi troops having crossed the Asir-Yemeni frontier.
• Anglo-Italian correspondence regarding the status of Asir.
• Reports of Ibn Sa'ud having issued an ultimatum to the Imam of Yemen.
• Treaty negotiations between Britain and Yemen.
• Reports of Saudi-Yemeni negotiations.
• Italian requests for 'projected discussions' with the British in Rome, regarding matters in Arabia.
• Details of the outbreak of war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The volume features the following principal correspondents: the Foreign Office; His Majesty's Chargé d’Affaires, Jedda (Albert Spencer Calvert); the British Minister at Jedda (Sir Andrew Ryan); His Majesty's Ambassador to Italy (Ronald William Graham, succeeded by James Eric Drummond); the Secretary of State for the Colonies [Philip Cunliffe-Lister]; the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Saudi Arabia [Fayṣal bin ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Āl Sa‘ūd]; King Faisal of Iraq [Fayṣal bin ‘Alī al-Hāshimī]; Ibn Sa'ud; the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Also included are extracts from Aden and Kuwait Political Intelligence summaries, and copies of letters from the Political Agent at Kuwait (Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson) to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf [Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle], regarding public opinion in Kuwait on the Saudi-Yemeni dispute.

The volume includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the volume by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.